WORRIED elderly folk in an historic city neighbourhood are up in arms over plans to open a home for children with behavioural problems on their doorstep.

The Advance Child Care home could be opened on the site of a former elderly people's home, in Coney Green Drive, in Longbridge's Austin Village.

Residents say their quiet streets, lined with distinctive American prefab bungalows, are the wrong setting for the new home.

Alan Taylor, aged 84, of The Oak Walk, said: "The residents are terribly worried. We've got young people living on the estate but the majority of residents are elderly.

"I would say no less than 60 per cent are pensioners and a high proportion of those widowed.

"There's no facilities for children here. On the other hand, the children have got to have somewhere to go. We're not just thinking about ourselves we're thinking about them as well."

Carol Peace, aged 46, of Laburnum Way and the secretary of the Austin Village Preservation Society, said: "We as a committee and the residents feel this is not the right place to house these youngsters, there are no facilities for them here. The village is mainly bungalows and is home for many retired people.

"The elderly people are so frightened they're going to have their houses broken into."

A spokeswoman for the city council said Advance Child Care wouldn't need planning permission because the site had already been a home.

But the company will be going through the registration process with the Commission for Social Care Inspection.

A spokesman for the home said: "We don't think this is an inappropriate area for the children's home. There are fantastic areas for them to play, a park's just over the road.

"We want to be looking after Birmingham's young people in Birmingham. The days of sticking young people miles away, in the countryside, have been shown up for what they are."